Friday, May 24, 2013

Islamic leader, Louis Farrakhan spoke at a Detroit Baptist Church and attacked Jews, calling them "Satanic Jews." He spoke of the "Synagogue of Satan." In his speech he claimed that Jewish people control the news media! I have to laugh at this one. He should know that the news media is the worst in the USA in promoting Israel. They rarely say anything good about Israel and love to print anything demeaning if they can find it, and that goes for any Jewish scandal as well. This is the ago old "say something with verbosity and people will believe you," but saying Jews control the media beats all. This is ancient anti-Semitic propaganda. Why, the only TV news station that says anything fairly good about Israel has been Fox, and they're always in trouble for doing so, and I have detected a softening even with Bill O'Reilly. CNN makes me shudder, especially from one of their prized commentators when covering the subject of Israel.

Covering this speech of Farrakhan's, who is the well known leader of the mainly African-American religious movement, the Nation of Islam (NOI), was the Detroit Free Press. He has been the minister of major mosques in Boston and Harlem. Appointed by the longtime NOI leader, Elijah Muhammad before his death in 1975, he became the National Representative of the Nation of Islam. So he's definitely a leader of anti-Semitic ideas with his people being so much anti-Semitism is coming out of mosques these days. I cite Qaradawi of Qatar as one big example who has a fatwah out to kill all Jews. he speaks out on al-Jazeera. Farrakhan is responsible for reopening over 130 NOI mosques in America and the world. Perhaps it is he who has coerced the media into their anti-Semitic stand.

Farrakhan wasn't even letting Obama off the hook by saying that he surrounded himself with Satan...members of the Jewish community. This in itself is rather amusing, being he has had a few Jews on his staff, but they have been in complete harmony with him, being staunch Democrats. It is their political viewpoint, not their religious one that connects them to Obama. These Jews barely know a thing about Israel, which is my personal opinion based on what problems Israel has had to face with this administration. I don't know what they could have coerced Obama into agreement with being they are just like him. Being that Jews make up only 2% of our American population goes to saying that Farrakhan just can't understand why they can rise to such importance as being advisers to the president. He shouldn't complain, though, not in this 2008-2116 period. Blacks are only about 11% of the population of the USA.

Representative John Conyers was in the audience and was quite embarrassed. He said, "Farrakhan made unacceptable racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic statements, which I condemn in the strongest possible terms." He said he thought the speech would be about the challenges facing the city of Detroit. Come on, Conyers. You know who Farrakhan is and what he has stood for in the past. His biggest thing is attacking Jews. Here was his chance at age 79 to tell a congregation at a Black Baptist church how he feels about Jews. I don't know of any leopard that can change his spots. He has changed his name a lot, though Louis Farrakhan Muhammad, Sr, was born as Louis Eugene Wolcott and was also formerly known as Louis X, which is rather like the famous Malcolm X.

Malcolm X was born as Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska whose father was a Baptist minister and supporter of the Black Nation's leader, Marcus Garvey. Malcolm studied the teachers of the NOI leader, Elijah Muhammad. "By 1942 Malcolm was coordinating various narcotics, prostitution and gambling rings in Harlem, New York." What he learned from Elijah was that "among other goals, the NOI fought for a state of their own, separate from one inhabited by white people." So he learned that white man purposely kept the black man down, to hate whites and especially to hate Jews.

Louis Farrakhan and Malcolm X's mentor, Elijah Muhammad was born as Elijah Robert Pool in Georgia in 1897 and died in 1975. His father was also a Baptist lay preacher and sharecropper and was only able to get a 4th grade education. "In August 1931, at the urging of his wife, Elijah Poole attended a speech on Islam and black empowerment by Wallace D. Fard. There you have the beginning of a movement lacking peace and promoting hatred.

Rep. John Conyers is a man, also black, of 84 in his 25th term in Congress. He is someone who has an anti-Israel voice in Congress. Now who do you suppose is his informant about Jews? He has been against Iran sanctions and against the US funding the Iron Dome and anti-missile system. His other side is that he's a typical left wing Democrat who wants things on his agenda fixed. Luckily, others besides me attacked him for attending Farrakhan's night at the church. Matt Drudge, an internet journalist who has the "Drudge Report" attacked him, and the ADA told Conyers and others to condemn these nasty remarks. Conyers apologized to those who may have been offended by the "minister's" words. Isn't he more like an Iman than a minister? Well, I, for one, am not only offended, but I am incensed at his words. They're malicious and evil words that have nothing to do with truth. .

Detroit is a big important city that has seen better days. It has been going downhill fast in this economy. They haven't tackled their deficit. What has Farrakhan done to help his people get jobs and improve their lot? His only religious lessons are to blame and hate Jews. He reminds me of another leader in the 1930's and 40's who did this. Better and more useful words have been spoken by Bill Cosby, who encourages education as the formula for successes and happiness. I note that these anti-Semites have been very short on this end.

I can throw in that my father, Jewish, also had to quit high school and not finish because he had to help support his widowed mother and younger sisters. It happened, but he didn't blame anyone. He worked hard, challenged himself and developed skills as a butcher, then a cattle buyer, and finally owned his own meat packing business. That's the American success story. He did it even though there were a lot of anti-Semitic people around, too. You have to believe in yourself and like yourself and know that you can succeed. You don't join a hate group and blame others for your lacking. You build your own support group of a loving family. You give life your best shot, again and again if need be. That's how you become proud of yourself.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

When the 1st Temple fell in Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE, many Jewish people were taken as prisoners. Nebuchadnezzar was the King of Babylon from 605-562 BCE. He had conquered all the lands from the Euphrates River to the Egyptian frontier, including Judah. It was in 597, after Judah revolted, that he dispatched contingents which captured Jerusalem and replaced the young King Jehoiachin who was only 18 years old ruling from 598-597 BCE ( 3 months and 10 days of ruling) with his own choice of 21 year old Zedekiah (born 618 BCE) , son of King Josiah in 597-586 BCE. Jehoiachin was taken to exile in Babylonia and kept in detention until 561 when he was released after 36 years of imprisonment.

Zedekiah had a horrible ending after being a king for 11 years. He had conspired with Egyptians causing the Babylonians to invade and capture Jerusalem. He tried to run away but was caught and tried. His sons were killed before him, his eyes were put out and he was put into prison in Babylon until he died at age 32. Nebuchadnezzar had exiled 8,000 of the local aristocracy to Babylon. Zedekiah was the last King of Judah. His accounts of these events are preserved in the British Museum. Gedaliah tried to perpetuate Judah. He had been a member of the former royal house, but this attempt ended with his assassination in 582. The descendants of the exiles in Babylonia continued to cherish their national and religious ideals wherever they were living.

Some of the captured Jews must have made their way to the modern-day Saudi Arabia and settled there in Medina. Medina was originally called Yathrib and was about 200 miles to the north of Mecca, where Mohammad was born and raised in the Quraysh tribe of the clan of Hashim. Medina had originally been settled by 3 Jewish tribes that arose in Medina well before the days of Mohammad (570-632 CE) .

They were the Banu Qainuqa/Kainuka, Banu Nadir and Banu Qurayza/Banu Kuraiza. Arabs of the area, called the Yathribites, also lived there. Evidently the Jews had told the townspeople about Moses and their prophets and had assured them of the coming of a Messiah someday. When Mohammad came to convert everyone to Islam, the townspeople thought he was the Messiah and also a man of ability who was familiar with the inner councils of the Quraysh, and who could lead them in their rivalry against the city of Mecca. He was then looked upon as not only a prophet of Allah, but also the head of a state. The two offices became combined.

Banu Kainuka had no land. They lived from trading and as goldsmiths. They were the first to suffer from the hostile attitude of Mohammad after his failure to win the Jews over to Islam. They were attacked and besieged in their strongholds in the year of 624 CE and were forced to surrender after 15 days of holding out from attack. Mohammad first wished to have all the men executed by spared them on condition that they leave Medina. They had to leave all their property in the hands of the new Muslims. The Jews migrated to the Jewish centers in Wadi-I-Kura and later further north to Adhriat.

Banu-L-Nadir had settled in a piece of land that they owned and had landed estates and strongholds. They worked and cultivated the soil, engaged in moneylending and traded in weapons and jewels, so that they were a wealthy tribe. They also were besieged in their forts by Mohammed and surrendered after about 2 weeks in 626 CE. Their property that they couldn't take with them was confiscated. They were permitted to leave, according to some sources. Others say this tribe was the most hostile to the pressure of Mohammad, the Islamic Prophet who called for their conversion to follow Islam. Many Jews from this tribe were killed. Mohammed had amassed 10,000 followers to help in his conversions, so it must have happened. They left by heading north and founded new settlements, partly in Khaibar and partly in Syria.

It was said that Raihana or Rayhana bint Zaayd ibn Amr, a very beautiful woman of the Banu Nadir tribe, was married to Mohammed, which is said not to be true. The story is that she was married to a man from the Banu Kuraiza/ Qurayza tribe and when his tribe was defeated by Muhammad, she became a slave as the men were all killed. Mohammad offered to marry her if she converted to Islam and she refused. She could have been turned into his concubine, but she died a slave a year before Mohammad did in 631 CE, so she died very young. She must have been living with him, and had refused to wear the hijab which caused a lot of arguing between them. She was buried in Jannat al-Baqi cemetery.

Mohammad had taken Safiyya, who did convert but didn't enter into much like his other wives, in total said to have had 12. "Safiyya bint Huyayy was a noblewoman, the daughter of Huyayy ibn Akhtab, chief of the Jewish tribe Banu Nadir, and wife of Kenana ibn al-Raabi a commander. Before her marriage to Kenana she had been married to the poet Sallam ibn Mishkam, who had divorced her. In 629, at the Battle of Khaybar, Banu Nadir was defeated, Safiyya's father was killed in battle, her
husband was executed, and she was taken as a prisoner. Muhammad freed
her from her captor Dihya and proposed marriage, which Safiyya accepted."

Banu Kuraiza lived in several villages to the south of Medina and their main occupation was agriculture. When Islam arose in about 610 CE, they numbered 750 fighting men and held some fortified positions in the neighborhood. They were the last Jews to be attacked by Mohammed who charged them with treason. When they had to surrender, they were treated more cruelly than their two other fellow-tribes. The men were executed and the women and children were sold into slavery. Among the Kuraizans were several poets who wrote in Arabic. Their verses are still in existence.

There was a covenant made between the Muslims and the Jews of Medina who had been living on the land for the past 1,216 years. It was the world's first constitution according to the Muslims. It gave various rights to Jews foreshadowing the Muslim treatment of the dhimmis-the People of the Book in Islamic lands. The document detailed the rights and responsibilities of outsiders, outlining the rights of the Banu Auf tribe and other Jewish tribes, mandating mutual defense and declaring off-limits any cooperation with the Quraysh tribe. Saying that the Jews of the Banu Auf are one community with the "believers" was a remarkable statement, and one which Islamic apologists of today never tire of quoting. It was soon superseded in the life of the Muslims by statements that were the opposite. The mutual defense provision had one exception. The Jews agreed to fight alongside the Muslims except in the case of a holy war.

"Jews who follow us shall not be wronged nor shall his enemies be aided. They shall contribute to the cost of war as long as they are fighting alongside the "believers" The Jews of the Banu Auf are one community with the "believers". The Jews have their religion and the Muslims have theirs, their freedmen and their persons except those who behave unjustly and sinfully, for they hurt but themselves and their families. The same applies to the Jews of the Banu al- Najjar, Banu al Harith, Banu Sa'ida, Banu Jusham, Banu al-Aus, Banu Tha'laba, and the Jafna, a clan of the Tha'laba and the Banu al-Shutayba."

Perhaps this meeting of Jews and Muslims caused certain ideas to be added to the Koran where matters did not go well, and possibly why we find a mingling of DNA between some of the 2 people.

Friday, May 17, 2013

The Muslim religious leader from Egypt, 86 year old Sheikh Yussef al-Qaradawi (9/9/1926), who has been living in Qatar for many years and is wheelchair bound has put out a fatwah to kill all Jews. He just arrived with his wheelchair in the Gaza Strip to be supportive of Hamas terrorists. He was the head of a delegation of 50 senior Islamic people from 14 countries. There are 48 Muslim majority countries in the world and possibly more today. This visit shows up Fatah, thought to be moderate by some compared to the missile tossing Hamas terrorists. It was Arafat, the leading terrorist who was the leader of Fatah up until his death.

Qaradawi is the special friend of the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thanki. His Prime Minister is a relative, Hamad ibn Jaber Al Thani and no doubt is also a good friend to Qaradawi. He was given refuge in Qatar when he was expelled from Egypt for his extreme radical attitude. He's also the head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars. They are in Gaza to tell the Palestinians to continue to "struggle" against Israel. Qaradawi wants to see a "conquered" Jerusalem and said this in 2011. Again, he's saying that Jews have no attachment to Jerusalem and that Muslims must defend Jerusalem with their lives, money and all their possessions or else Allah will punish them.

This included to not give up one inch of land to the Jews and to not make any concessions on the "right of return" of millions of Palestinians to their pre-1948 villages and towns inside Israel. They are telling people that "Palestine" was never Jewish. He neglects the facts that there never was a state of Palestine, and that the whole land was a Jewish, made up of the Empire of Israel of Kings Saul, David and Solomon and their descendants and the state of Judah reaching back back to Moses and the Exodus of 1,271 BCE to 70 CE. The lies he tells Hamas is that "Palestine has always been Arab and Islamic." He accuses Jews of seizing lands, shedding blood, burning farms and demolishing houses.

The only thing here half true is the bulldozers used to demolish homes of terrorists after much warning of non-compliance. Otherwise, land was not seized. Land was bought legally at very outrageously high prices for the time and the Jewish National Home was accepted through the League of Nations and the UN. It was the Arabs who sided with Germany in WWI and lost the Ottoman Empire to the Allies who dispersed with it as they saw fit. It was England who made decisions since they held the mandate. But he doesn't want to see facts; just his own wild version of life. It was even the high and mighty Arab leaders who sided with Hitler!

He's there because he's afraid that Fatah's Abbas is ready to sit down and talk about peace with Netanyahu at the urging of the USA's Secretary of State, John Kerry. Qaradawi is telling Hamas that it is forbidden to make concessions to Israel and the only way to restore their rights is through Jihad-holy war. He has refused to take part in any interfaith dialogue. Abbas tried to turn the tide by calling on supporters to boycott Qaradawi, but thousands turned out to greet him like a hero. It's because this man has said so many anti-Semitic things about Jews. His followers are all for destroying Israel. Qaradawi views Jews as the enemies of Islam and as treacherous aggressors.

January 9, 2009's sermon over al Jazeera saw him praying and saying that Allah should take this oppressive Jewish Zionist band of people and not to spare one of them. He asked Allah to kill them, down to the very last one." He also said on January 28, 2009 that he will shoot Allah's enemies, the Jews, and they will throw a bomb at me, and I will be a martyr!

There are 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza that have voted for Hamas as their leader. His visit gives Hamas status and in the eyes of other Islamists, the Islamic party over Fatah. It also shows that this difference between Palestinian Muslims and Jewish Israelis is a matter of religion; the battle of Islam against Judaism. They will not accept the Jewish presence in the middle of all the Muslim countries. There were Muslim Palestinians in 2004 saying he was giving Islam a bad name. Since then, Jews in Gaza left in 2005 to bring about peace and it became another all-Muslim territory.

I wonder if the anti-Christ is actually Qaradawi. He's certainly carrying a vile message which is the opposite of peace.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

The Eurovision Song Contest is the best part of what comes out of Europe. 39 countries take part in this contest including Israel. I enjoyed this time of the year so much when I lived in Israel from 1980 to the end of 1985. The music was fantastic. I was so proud in 1982 when Israel won 2nd place with "Hora." This year the contest was held in Malmo, Sweden, of all places, a place that has witnessed a lot of anti-Semitism.

Malmo has been a city where Holocaust survivors settled after WWII and is home to about 1,000 Jews. The Scandinavian country had been one to treat people fairly. My own maternal grandmother came from Lumsheden, a village in the north. Lately, it has also been found to be a haven for Muslims who have turned on the Jewish survivors and their descendants for being Jewish. Today 30% of Malmo are Muslims. Unlike the United States, the government has done nothing to stop this persecution. In 2010 and 2011 there were 480 complains of anti-Semitism but the court system didn't convict anyone of hate crimes.

The outgoing mayor, llamr Reepalu is thought to be encouraging anti-Semitism because of the statements he has made in suggesting that Jews shouldn't be Zionistic and that only then will they stay safe. In other words, he himself is against Israel's existence. A lawyer in Sweden accused him of being anti-Semitic, anti-Jew and anti-Israel and making the city stand for that. Just last year, Muslims set off a bomb outside the city's Jewish Community Center and vandalized it. The police wouldn't classify it as a hate crime. No one has been found to have done this. Born October 11, 1943, he said in February that he is stepping down from his position as mayor on July 1, 2013 when he will soon be celebrating his 70th birthday. He was born in Nova, Estonia and his family had fled from the Soviets and went to Sweden. Neither Estonia nor Russia have ever liked Jews.

On Wednesday, Daniel Sestrajcic, chairman of the Culture Committee, said Israel should be boycotted from the Eurovision and can only return when Palestine is free! This was shouted at a demonstration commemorating the Palestinian "catastrophe," or Nakba- May 14, 1948 when Israel became a state through the UN. It's as if many of Malma have turned into Palestinians who haven't a clue as to the facts as to why Israel was created at all or the history of the Arabs deemed as Palestinians.

It so happens that Israel took first place in both 1978 with "A-Ba-Ni-Bi", and 1979 with "Hallelujah" (my favorite), and then came in 2nd in 1982 with "Hora" and 1983 with "Chai". Israel came in 1st again in 1998 with "Diva." France, Switzerland and Finland were high voters for Israel. Israel was the host for the contest in 1979 and 1999. In 2009 Noa and Mira Awed, Israeli Arabs were the contestants from Israel singing, "There Must Be Another Way". They came in 16th. .

Three Jews from the Israeli delegation to the Eurovision song contest were in Malmo and were accosted right on the street. Alon Amir told the Swedish radio station that some young Muslim men accosted them. The Muslims addressed them as Israelis and told them they wanted to bomb wherever they were staying, and they were quite serious about it.

Probably to the mayor's angst, the competition is scheduled to end Saturday and hundreds of Jews and non-Jews are planning to walk together through the street of Malmo while wearing kippahs as a sign of their opposition to anti-Semitism. Good for them! It's about time.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Nadene Goldfoot Walt Disney's Witch in Snow White and Rose Red
The Middle East Media Institute (MEMRI) found out that one of the Ayatollah Khamenei's closest men, Mehdi Taeb, said to students on April 20, 2013 at a religious seminary in Iran that "Jews are subjecting Iranians to a trial. Jews have great powers of sorcery and they are using this. All measures against Iran are from the Zionists. The USA is one of their tools. So far, they haven't used the full scope of their sorcery against Iran yet."

Moses (1391-1271 BCE) threw his cane down and it turned into a snake and swallowed up the pharoah's snake. The belief is that G-d did that. Almost 4,000 years ago, in King Solomon's day (961-920 BCE), there were those that believed in the use of supernatural power such as witchcraft. It was a capital offence in Biblical law. Deuteronomy 18:10-11 gives us the injunction against resorting to witchcraft, divination, and other magical practices of people of that day. "When you come to the land that G-d gives you, you shall not learn to act according to the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you one who causes his son or daughter to pass through the fire, one who practices divinations, an astrologer, one who reads omens, a sorcerer; or an animal charmer, one who inquires of Ov or Yidoni, or one who consults the dead."

The traditional Jew has tended to view with suspicion anything of real or imaginary supernatural origin beyond the horizon of normal Jewish life. Any new attempts to gain contact with the spiritual world was mistrusted as an attack on the sobriety and sanity of his faith. The practice and belief were difficult to eradicate in ancient days. In and around Israel about 4,000 years ago the few using it were necromancers-those calling on spirits to tell of the future; the casting of lots and oracles and charms in connection with illness. It has shown up in medieval and post-medieval times. In America, it was thought that young women were involved in witchcraft and hung many witches in the 1600's in Salem, Massachusetts. That's 400 years ago. Today in the USA, we still do have people who practice some form of witchcraft.

"In Medieval Jewish, Christian and Islamic legends (500-1500 CE) , the Seal of Solomon was a magical signet ring said to have been possessed by King Solomon. This is not a fact from the Torah. We Jews do not talk about Solomon and witchcraft. He is known to us for his wisdom and for being a great king of Israel. I was astounded that anyone would blame him for witchcraft practices. Evidently the people thought that anyone who was successful had to be using witchcraft. They couldn't imagine anyone getting anyplace without such help. Jews remark that it is his sakhel, his brains that get him places.

In the book, What Does Judaism Say About..?" witchcraft is not listed. Instead, The Evil Eye is listed. In Hebrew this is called the ayin ha-ra. It denotes simply envy of good fortune. I think this is Iran's problem. They are so envious of Israel's good fortune to have been created a state and they are determined to destroy it. We know this from their statements, their religious leaders comments and the charter of the Muslim Brotherhood. In Judaism, the evil eye had no occult significance. In the book of Proverbs (28:22) it said, "He that hath an evil eye hasteneth after riches, and knoweth not that want shall come upon him. Here, the effects are on the envious man himself. Perhaps that will mean that Iran, being the envious one, will fall on hard times, and they have with world powers coming down on them about creating nuclear weapons to use against Israel. They have been undergoing financial hard times.

What Jews use is their heads, not ever witchcraft. They are intelligent people. Many are doctors, lawyers and scientists. Jews have received 187 Nobel prizes. From 1901 to 2012, 22% of all Nobel prizes winners have been Jews, In the USA alone they have won 36% of them. The USA, which has more than 315 million people, has about 6 million Jews. Worldwide, the 14 million Jews are only 0.02% of the population.

Muslims have received 10 Nobel prizes of which 6 were just recent ones as peace prizes, like Sadat and Arafat received. There have been 2 Muslim scientists; one from Pakistan and one Egyptian living in the the USA. A woman, Shirin Ebadi, is the only Nobel prize winner from Iran. She is a human rights activist speaking out for women and children. The world is populated with over 7 billion people of which there are about 76,923,300 living in Iran. About 98% follow Shi'a Islam..

Back in March 2013, an article was found on an Iranian website about Jewish use of sorcery and numerology. "the Jewish people think that ruling over man, nature and divine traditions can be achieved only by means of sorcery. ...Sorcery is known to be a practice in the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Koran and the monotheistic religions disapprove. But Jewish mysticism regards it as a legitimate means to uncover the secrets of the holy book (Old Testament.)" This is what they are telling their people, that we are using witchcraft to this day.

In the same period, candidates in Iraqi elections reported using witchcraft. Witchcraft is the theme in Iran's weddings based on Harry Potter and fashions including pointy-toed boots and peaked hats. It looks like it's the rage in Iraq. As we in the USA have had our Egypt theme in jewelry and clothing, theirs is witchcraft.

People in this part of the world believe in genies. "However belief in genies (or jinn, as they are better known in the
Arabic world) is both serious and widespread. In his book "Legends of
the Fire Spirits: Jinn and Genies from Arabia to Zanzibar"
(Counterpoint Books, 2011), journalist Robert Lebling notes that "jinn
are taken seriously and regarded as real, tangible beings by a large
segment of the world's population.... They often appear humanoid or
even human but possess amazing powers we lack. They can change their shapes, can fly through the air, and even can render themselves invisible."

Ahmadinejad has accused 24 influencial Iranian clerics of using witchcraft and summoning genies . They are accused of being magicians. He thinks Abbas Ghaffari called up a genie which caused a heart attack of a man persecuting him.

Iran is doing something very dangerous, though. They are sending sophisticated and dangerous weapons to Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon through Syria. Their goal in life is to destroy Israel. Who is the backer of the dictator, Assad in Syria? Iran is by sending weapons and fighters. Syria, has aligned itself with Iran, their big brother. Russia seems to be the big brother of Iran.

Israel won't use magic against you, Iran. They will use science and their own technology. Israel has done much for the world in the field of medicine. If you harm Israel, you will be harming a gift from G-d for the world. Wise up!

Friday, May 10, 2013

The UN is being made a fool of by Richard Falk. His words are weapons. First he blamed the Boston terror attack by two brothers from Russia on the USA and Israeli policies. This attack came out of the blue during a marathon and the people participating or watching had nothing to do with any policies. Nothing ever came out of the mouths of the attackers as to what their motives were. We just know that they were influenced by Muslim extremists on internet. We've had this almost happen in Portland during Christmas but the FBI intervened just in time. The Russian brothers' sudden allegiance to terrorism didn't go over well with their uncle who was very much against such an attitude. Their relationship with him was severed before they attacked the marathon attendees. The USA had been good to them. Their father had sought asylum because he was afraid of being killed in his home country. The boys had received the best education and even financial aid to make their life here comfortable. They received only kindness. This is how they paid our country back. It's a matter of warped thinking.

Then Richard Falk justified the bombings as a form of resistance bound to result from US military undertakings. That is just plain sick. But he's right, it does have results. The results are that Americans are waking up to some hard and cold facts of life. They are realizing that Islam is not all made up of a religion of peace if leaders are reading into it such actions that Falk commends. In fact, he's defending the act of terrorism.

Harming innocent people is a far cry from changing the world. It is hardening our hearts. The kind and loving family of Bill and Denise Richard is taking the brunt of these insane political agendas that is breaking our hearts. Their 8 year old boy died in that blast. His younger sister, age 7, has undergone her 11th operation on her left leg which she lost below the knee. That closed the wound and will allow for the eventual fitting of a prosthesis. Hopefully she could be ready to be in the rehabilitation stage. She still faces more surgeries. The entire family was right by the bomb when it exploded. One of the terrorists had looked right into their eyes as he laid the bomb down by their feet. The mother still has not recovered sight in one eye. The father is healing from shrapnel wounds and burns but has not yet recovered from a hearing loss. They are blessed by having the older son, age 11, that was not injured.

In 2008, the United Nations Human Rights (UNHRC) appointed Falk to a six-year term as a United Nations Special Rapporteur on "the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories that Israel had inherited after being attacked in 1967 in which the Arab nations lost and Israel won. Some of his official reports, as well as other writings, have been
criticized by United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and others. He's due to be finished in 2014 which couldn't come fast enough. It would save the world the pain of being accosted by his false accusations if he were just released from his position. He really should be fired for spouting off like he does. It's an affront to all those who lost their lives and have been maimed in such a senseless attack. No one deserves terrorism.

The only good that can possibly come out of Richard's ravings is that one can see how his mind works. Blame the USA instead of the culprits, the terrorists. It's just like blaming the victims of rape and not the rapist. Usually he blames Israel, regardless. Israel treats people far better than any other country does in the Middle East, and probably even some places in the USA. He always chooses Israel as the scapegoat and praises the Palestinians, no matter what. He's no Solomon, that's for sure. Falk's been one-sided from the get go.

Falk has no convictions of honesty or the capacity to differ between right and wrong actions. He reminds me of Ariel Castro, the man in Cleveland who held 3 girls prisoners for ten years and then blamed them for getting in his car with him for his insane acts. This man can't accept blame. Falk has no excuse. The man of 82 years should be retired. He's gone past the stage of being a curmudgeon. "There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing." Proverbs 12:18.

UN Watch is trying to get him dismissed from his position but many feel this will open the door for other countries that will try the same thing if they disagree with their statements. That isn't the point. Falk continually takes the same stand. There is no measuring scale for him. Israel is always wrong and the Palestinians are always right. Now he's including the USA. Isn't there anyone available who has the ability to judge fairly without prejudice in the UN? That's the challenge they are supposed to take on.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

The song, "Jerusalem of Gold" pulls at my heart. My eyes well up with tears. I learned this song in my ulpan in Haifa with teacher Sarah, the one that also wrote letters to Natan Sharansky keeping his Hebrew lessons going. The drumbeat with Ofra Haza singing is lifting me up to this wall above and over all of Jerusalem. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH8gtdDA5x0. I am back in Jerusalem.

"Tomorrow is Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day. It is the day we commemorate and express thanks for the liberation of the Old City and the reunification of Yerushalayim. As we remember the dear price we Israelis, had to pay for it, we rejoice in the fulfillment of the ancient prophecies and express thanks to G-d, to the brave soldiers of the IDF and those who died for it. I would also like to express special thanks to our enemies for their help in making that dream a reality by imposing a war on us, a war we did not want and never wished for. That war, our enemies, that Six day war that you waged upon us, resulted in the greatest miracle of them all. Yerushalayim, our Eternal Capital is UNITED forever!" (quote from Bat Zion Sacks) She stated this so eloquently. I cannot do better.

Since Muslim leaders such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have been busy trying to erase the Jewish presence and history of Israel, Many want to take Jerusalem as theirs, but it was and is again the capital of Israel. For starters, it is situated in the center of the Judean Mountains. The Torah holds much of our history and geography facts. King David took the beginnings of a city in 1010 BCE and Jerusalem became his capital of his united Israel. He added the fortress of Zion and the "house of Heroes" for his guard. There he constructed a tomb right inside the city for himself and his dynasty and transferred the Ark of the Covenant there as well. David made Jerusalem the religious center of Israel. It has remained so. David was a conquerer and made it also the capital of an empire reaching from the Red Sea to the Euphrates, such as G-d had told Abraham that his seed would do. At the beginning of the 1st century when Jesus was born, it is figured that about 80,000 people lived in Jerusalem. Today there are over 800,000.

Skipping ahead in time to our near-present to May 14, 1948 when Israel was reestablished as a state through the British mandate and the League of Nations and the United Nations, Jews had to fight for their lives after this pronouncement as Arabs attacked viciously. Jerusalem was divided into 2 parts. The Israel section included the whole of the west and south parts of the New City, including "Mount Zion" and an enclave on Mt. Scopus. Herzl and other Zionist leaders were re-interred on the mountain, Mt. Herzl, west of the city. The city was the administrative center of the country.

On June 5, 1967, Jordanian troops in the Old City and the Jordanian sections of the city bombarded the New City. Israel's army reacted and 2 days later the entire city came under Israel control. This was the beginning of the Six Day War.

The first thing Israeli soldiers did was to go in mass visits to the Western (Wailing) Wall, something prohibited to Jews for about 20 years. They cried, sang, danced and said plenty of prayers for Israel. Tourists head for this site first, cry, sometimes kiss the ground, and leave their prayers between the rocks of the wall.

On June 29, 1967, the Israeli government formally united the 2 sections of the city and the barriers that had divided them were removed. The population of the eastern part of the city, including 139,600 Muslims and Christians, are now part of the total population which was 493,500 in 1990. By 2011 Jerusalem had 801,000 people. 64% were Jews and 36% Arabs. The breakdown was: 497,000 Jews, 281,000 Muslims, 14,000 Christians and 9,000 undefined. The growth to 2013 is at 2.5%. Half of the Jewish people live in either Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. The proportion of ultra-Orthodox Jews has grown rapidly as has the immigrants.

They all felt the Arab-Jewish cooperation, but also the sabotage that exacerbated their relationships, like when the intifada started in 1987. Arab states and outsiders instigated trouble. There are those elements pushing Israel to go back to the 1967 borders, including President Obama with his speech on TV. Not one to be stopped in progress, Israel continued on with life and their plans to develop the sacred city. The Jerusalem Law of 1980 extended Israel sovereignty over the entire city. Excavations which had been carried out at the site of the City of David are now supplemented by diggings around the western and southern walls of the Temple enclosure.

My 3rd cousin, Stanley Goldfoot (1914-2006) , was the Chief of Intelligence before 1948 for the Stern Group, young men who were fighting for Israel's creation before 1948. He was able to live through it all as told in Genesis 1948 - about the first Arab-Israeli War of 1947-48 by Dan Kurzman. He had come to what was then called "Palestine" at age 18 on a ship that put up the Swastika flag in the middle of the ocean from his port in South Africa. He immediately was approached by Sternists upon stepping on shore and signed up which he willingly did. Eventually he married and lived in Jerusalem on Dor v'Dor Avenue; from Generation to Generation.

Yes, Jews have lived in Jerusalem for generations for 3,283 years, which, when you figure 4 generations per 100 years, means about 131 generations consistently. There never has been a time when Jerusalem was devoid of Jews. The city was burned by the Romans in 70 CE, which caused many of us to scatter, but not all.

Israel went through many empires that walked through, mostly as nomads on camels. The conquering Romans renamed the land "Palestine." Why? It was to erase the Jewishness of the land, something they had a habit of doing to a conquered people. There never was the state of Palestine, though. No king, no president, de nada, nothing. The Ottoman Empire held it lastly for 400 years and lost it by siding with Germany in WWI. Before them were the Byzantine Empire, Sasanids, Umayyad, and Abbasids, Many trampled through but did not live here nor care about it. It was just a part of their empire. Through it all, Jews continued to live and love and learn in Jerusalem, their center.

As Stanley wrote in 1969: "I am not a creature from another planet, as you seem to believe. I am a Jerusalemite-like yourselves, a man of flesh and blood. I am a citizen of my city, an integral part of my people. I have a few things to get off my chest. Because I am not a diplomat, I do not have to mince words. I do not have to please you or even persuade you. I owe you nothing. You did not build this city, you did not live in it, you did not defend it when they came to destroy it.And we will be damned if we will let you take it away. There was a Jerusalem before there was a New York. When Berlin, Moscow, London, and Paris were miasmal forest and swamp, there was a thriving Jewish community here. It gave something to the world which you nations have rejected ever since you established yourselves- a humane moral code.Here the prophets walked, their words flashing like forked lightning.Here a people who wanted nothing more than to be left alone, fought off waves of heathen would-be conquerors, bled and died on the battlements, hurled themselves into the flames of their burning Temple rather than surrender, and when finally overwhelmed by sheer numbers and led away into captivity, swore that before they forgot Jerusalem, they would see their tongues cleave to their palates, their right arms wither. "This is but an excerpt of the letter, done in video below. Hope you listen and watch. It's how Stanley felt in 1969, shortly after that horrid war. Yes, Stanley, I'll be thinking of you and all the others tomorrow and all you did to bring about this wonderful day.

Resource: facebook friend: Bat Zion Susskind-Sacks, Israel
Letter to the World by Stanley Goldfoot (1969) who lived in Jerusalem http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTM7EzhaG7I
http://www.icjs-online.org/index.php?eid=3461&ICJS=5849&article=1387 printout of Letter to the World
Song: Jerusalem of Gold http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH8gtdDA5x0 by Ofra Haza (most beautiful)
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/155939
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/newpop.html

Monday, May 6, 2013

Living in the Middle East, about the least aggressive country we find is Israel. Whatever steps Israel takes is only in the act of defensiveness, not aggressiveness. There is a big difference. Aggression is an offensive action; the practice of making attacks or encroachments; unprovoked violation by one country of the territorial integrity of another; an aggressive outlook or its manifestation, as in overt forceful action or in mental attitudes. Defense, on the other hand, is the act of defending; the capability of resisting attack; means or method of defending; and to be defensive is taking a defensive position. Above you see a missile headed for Sderot, Israel shot from Gaza. When Israel is on the defensive, they will use an airstrike and pinpoint the place where missiles are coming from. They're not trying to kill innocents, whereas that missile will strike in a populated civilian area. Of course, the the Muslim Brotherhood has taken the stand that the existence of Israel is a violation, thus the terrorist acts against this fledgling country. They refuse to accept all the legalities that Israel went through to exist including recognition in the UN.

The fact is that Israel is a teeny country of 8 thousand sq miles with a teeny sized population of 7.5 million people, of which 6 million are Jews. Israel was established as a haven for Jews who have suffered persecution since the Roman days, and especially after losing their one and only country, Judaea in 70 CE. They've had to fight since its rebirth in 1948 to keep what they had prayed for in the past 2,000 years because of all the aggressiveness from their neighbors. Why would they ever try to take on the their Muslim neighbors who wouldn't sign a peace treaty except Egypt and Jordan, their close neighbors? Crazy, Israel is not. They had to wait for 2,000 years for this country, and Israelis are not about to blow it.

Having been reminded of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's sonnet, I will take on the voice of Israel's neighbors in speaking to Israel: "How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways" .....Remember, the Palestinians refuse to even recognize Israel as the Jewish state. Why? Religion? Politics? Racial? Their aggression? The planned for Palestine is to have not one Jew living in the land. They want it "Judenrein!" Compare that to Israel with 1.7 million Arab citizens. Jews didn't even get the chance to offer an olive branch. They were shot before and the very moment after the announcement of being conferred with state status.

Right now, we have the condition that every county of Muslim majority in or near the Middle East has it in for Israel. There are Muslim religious leaders, such as Qaradawi of Qatar broadcasting to followers to kill all Jews. We have the Muslim Brotherhood which has taken hold on the Middle East with a charter saying to not accept Israel's presence and to wipe her out and take it for themselves. Then we have terrorist organizations up to the gazoo working under this same flag with the same goal. It's not paranoia on Israel's part. There are many people who are out to take and destroy Israel.

Syria, whose border with Israel is only about 100 miles away, has been in a civil war for the past 2 years. Next door to Syria is Lebanon who also shares the border with Israel. Hezbollah, the terrorists who want to wipe out Israel, who openly say they are the resistance movement against Israel, are embedded in Lebanon. What has been happening is that Iran, who wants to wipe out Israel, has been supplying weapons to Hezbollah through Syria. Behind all this backing them is Russia. It's become the evil empire against the West, and Israel, besides being a Jewish state, is the token West in their midst. Israel has a good system of finding out what is going on. They've already discovered a weapons armory in Syria which could contain chemical as well as many state of the art weapons that could cause huge damage and could fall into the arms of Hezbollah in Lebanon. So they have attacked this site and the trucks parked outside ready to deliver them. This is a defensive act, not an aggressive one. Everyone knows that Hezbollah can get these weapons and use them against Israel.

President Obama of USA has stated that Israel has the right to do this. He now realizes how close the antagonists are to Israel. Coming from the states, it's hard for anyone to understand the closeness if they haven't seen it with their own eyes. It's similar to the neighborhood nearest you to start a missile attack on your house.

Israel told Assad that no war is intended and that they are not taking sides in their civil war, but they don't want to be a casualty in it, either. Already Syrian missiles have struck the Golan Heights, which is part of Israel which were thought to be strays from the civil war. That's how close everyone is; hit by a stray missile, yet. The Syrian Coalition, those against the regime of Assad, remains suspicious feeling that this is taking away attention from the crimes and massacres on the Syrian coast, so they are blaming both Israel and Assad.

When Israel has been forced to act in defense, it is due to the obvious threat for their lives and done to protect their citizens, which has happened with all the terrorism coming out of Gaza. Not once has Israel acted out of desire to take land. If one is looking at Judea and Samaria (West Bank), the same applies. It was an all out war against Israel to drive her into the sea in 1967 that caused the Arab nations to attack her. Maybe there are miracles happening after all, because by all logic, Israel should have lost, but instead, proved the gamblers wrong and won against a horrid attack. As it turned out, this battle to the death gave Israel back land she was told was hers way back in 1917 from the League of Nations that was to be the Jewish Homeland. Judea and ancient Israel's capital, Samaria, later referred to as SAMARIA, was the ancient homeland of Israel from the days of Moses. England withdrew their word and promise to Israel by giving away 80% of Israel's promised land. Not everyone has been honest in their dealings with Israel.

Aggressors abound in the Middle East today. Iraq is an ongoing battleground. In 1982 they fought the bloodiest of battles with Iran. The USA even entered taking out Saddam Hussein, one of the worst dictators, but found no stockpiles of weapons. The accusation was that they were the country spurring on the 9/11 attacks in the USA causing over 2,000 deaths, even though the assailants were all from "friendly "Saudi Arabia.. It's not a safe haven in Iraq yet.

The Sunni and Shiite religious factions are attacking each other. The Sunnis living in a camp in the north are protesting that they are being treated like dhimmis (2nd class citizens) with a security crack-down by the Shiite-led government. Shiites blasted away at Sunnis near a cafe in the Sunni neighborhood near Baghdad and killed 9 and wounding dozens on Sunday in and around the capital.

Syria's aggressiveness is sectarian with a Sunni rebel movement against a regime dominated by Alawites and backed by Shiites including Hezbollah and Iran. Here we see Muslims against Muslims, like Ireland's Catholic and Protestant battles. Assad has recently used chemical weapons against his foes. They have just executed dozens, possibly hundreds of Sunni men, women and children. Most Assad people live along the coastal region. The rebels, called the Syrian Coalition, just showed videos of the carnage on their people. The pictures were of bloodied corpses of babies and adults, some of whom had been shot in the head or burned.

Pakistan'smilitary forces suffered losses of their security forces from insurgent attacks in lawless districts that left 8 dead. 30 militant and criminal suspects were also killed on Sunday. Clashes went on in the Tirah Valley in the NW where 2 soldiers and 16 militants were killed. The army's offensive last month were targeting the Taliban and another offshoot of them, Lashkar-e-Islam. In the Waziristan region near Afghanistan, a roadside bomb attack on a convoy killed 2 soldiers and wounded 3. In Baluchistan, 13 suspects were killed in clashes. This all happened and was reported on Sunday.

Afghanistaninsurgents killed a German special forces soldier and wounded a 2nd on Sunday. It was a slow week. Nigeriahad an attack that targeted a church and a local market. How can those aggressors say that they caused harm to them? This African country isn't all that far away from the Middle East and contains 155,215,573 , the 4th largest Muslim majority country of which 50.4% or more today are Sunni Muslims.Somalia, a country that is 100% Sunni Muslim, the 25th largest Sunni Muslim country with 9,558,666 suffered from a suicide bomber, killing 7 people on Sunday. They tried to ram a car filled with explosives into a military convoy. Is this an Arab Spring reprisal? Armies are being attacked by rebels in many of these Muslim countries. Tanzaniais turning aggressor with someone placing a bomb in a Roman Catholic church just before Sunday's Mass. This killed one woman and wounded 44 seriously. What reason is there for this act? Curacao, a small Dutch Caribbean island off the Venezuelan coast had an aggressive man shoot and kill the leader of the Pueblo Soberano political party, member in the coalition government. People there are in shock. Boston, Massachusetts, USA, our recent terrorist attack from one of the worst aggressive acts from mentally brainwashed Muslim young brothers with the possibility of others' involvement.. Those watching the marathon did nothing to these two fellows except to be the taxpayers that paid for much of their government- funded amenities such as food, lodging and education, taking them in when their father called out that he was in fear of his life in his home country.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Abraham and Isaac
Was Abraham and his father Terah members of Habirus? They were mercenaries or slaves. Records of them were found in the Tel el-Amarna tables and in other documents of the 15th-14th centuries BCE. Many scholars think that the word Habiru is identical with Ivri or Hebrews. The references are in connection to threat of the Habiru to Canaanite cities and are one of the stages in Israelite conquest of Canaan. They were said to come from the East.

Jews and many Arabs can trace their ancestry back to the Biblical patriarch, Abraham. He was the son of Terah. They lived in Ur of the Chaldees, which is in today's Iraq, and moved to live among the Canaanites and Philistine inhabitants of Canaan. There he pitched his tent and lived with his wife, Sarah. He is known as the Father of Monotheism. The people of Ur had believed in idol worship which necessitated the move.

Abraham was told by G-d that his seed would inherit the land "from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates," and made a covenant with him. His first son was Ishmael through Sarah's young handmaid, Hagar. Ishmael and his mother were sent away from Abraham's tent due to discord between Hagar and Sarah, who in her old age finally also became pregnant with Isaac. Sarah may have been elderly, however managed to nurse Isaac, but had been needled by Hagar about this. Sarah felt that Ishmael was teasing and picking on Isaac and the two women failed to get along. On Isaac's day of being weaned, probably at age 2, Sarah was very agitated with Hagar and didn't want Ishmael to inherit anything with Isaac. After all, Hagar was a slave and of another people, though Abraham had taken Hagar as a wife. This distressed Abraham so G-d told him that Ishmael would also have a nation but to listen to Sarah. Hagar, who had gone from slave status to wife, , chosen to be one to carry Abraham's child because of the her bareness at that time, had become disrespectful towards, Sarah. Sarah was the first and older legal wife and niece of Abraham and G-d told Abraham to listen to her.

Ishmael and Hagar then went to live in Paran, which was a desert, a wilderness in the Negev. It was situated NE of the traditional Mt. Sinai, south of Kadesh, extending to the shores of the Gulf of Elath and the Arabah. Ishmael's daughter, Mahalath, married his half-nephew, Esau, twin son of Isaac. Ishmael did meet up with his half brother, Isaac at the funeral of Abraham where they both buried him. Ishmael is considered the Father of the Arab peoples, making Jews and Arabs "cousins."

The prophesy about Ishmael by an angel of G-d to Hagar was thus: He shall be a wild-ass of a man; his hand against everyone, and everyone's hand against him; and over all his brothers shall he dwell." Abraham was 86 years old at the time of his birth. (Genesis 16:11-12).

In the Jewish version of this event, Isaac is used as the sacrifice that Abraham was told to perform, while in the Muslim version, it is Ishmael. The two versions do vary in places with the Torah being the oldest version by 2,000 years. The Torah was written by Moses (1391-1271 BCE). Writing was a skill he learned in Egypt being he was a son of the Pharoah's daughter and raised as a prince. He had had a thorough education. Islam's Koran, written by Mohammad (570-632 CE), came about 2,000 later.

In the Midrash, a section that works on finding new meanings besides the literal ones in the Scriptures in the Talmud, it says that Ishmael's offspring or descendants were destined to persecute and murder Jews. G-d responded that he would judge Ishmael only according to his present deeds and not according to what would happen in the future.(Rashi). The Midrash usually refers to legends and ethics.

Abraham died at age 175 in the year 2123 from Creation (Jewish Calendar). That was 3,650 years ago being that this year is 5773 on the Jewish Calendar. That makes his death as we would understand it in the year 1,637 BCE. Ishmael lived for 137 years. He had been living from Havilah to Shur, which is near Egypt-toward Assyria. To put this into perspective, Moses (1391-1271 BCE) was Abraham's 3rd great grandson.

Esau was born to Isaac and Rebecca, his first cousin once removed, and was the elder of twins with his twin brother being Jacob. Esau was hairy and Jacob was smooth skinned. Rebecca was told by G-d that two nations were in her womb; two regimes from your insides shall be separated; the might shall pass from one regime to the other, and the elder shall serve the younger. Esau had been born red, entirely like a hairy mantle; so they named him Esau. Jacob was born holding onto the heal of Esau, so he was named Jacob. Esau grew up doing the hunting, a man of the field. Jacob was a wholesome man, abiding in tents. Isaac's favorite son was Esau, but Rebecca loved Jacob more.

Jacob is later given the name of Israel upon a change in status. These twins became enemies when Jacob, the younger, became the owner of the birthright from their father which is a firstborn blessing. The story is that Jacob actually had tricked Esau in getting this over a bowl of porridge. Esau had come in from hunting and was so hungry that he gave up his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of food instead. Jacob took that to mean that Esau didn't think much of the honor and responsibility in the first place.

Of course this is a tale of sibling rivalry that goes on today between siblings, but they usually love each other anyway today. We read all the time of sibling rivalry in Egypt and Rome where there was no love, only jealousy many times resulting in death. Esau didn't have any love for his twin for this loss of his and wanted to kill Jacob for it. Jacob had to move out of the compound and flee to Haran. Haran was the brother of Abraham and father of Lot. He had remained in Ur. Terah, Abraham's father and Abraham had lived there in a Habiru (Hebrew?) settlement. It was a trading town and the center of a moon cult. He returned home 20 years later and they had an affectionate reunion. (Gen.35). The Torah identifies Esau with the land of Edom and Jacob becomes known as Israel.

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the leaders of Judaism, are the ones to carry on Abraham's religious thoughts of monotheism. It wasn't until Mohammad, Islam's prophet, came into being when he decided to also follow monotheism as he came from pagans worshipping many gods. The moon god, Allah, was the most powerful one This is probably why the symbol on their flag is a crescent moon. Muslims face the Kabba in Mecca when they pray which is very sacred to them. It's a large cuboid made of near-by granite known as the Sacred House.

Ishmael, by being a child harder to discipline, was "out on the streets" so to speak and not under the tutelage of his father, Abraham, thereby growing up in paganism. He most likely followed the beliefs of Hagar, who was an Egyptian. Judaism had a head start on monotheism by a good 2,000 years through Isaac.

If anything, this part of Genesis is a lesson on the seriousness of raising one's children. By circumstances and prophecy, the whole world is affected by decisions from our ancient ancestors. I also see a great plan, and that our destiny had some controls at the helm.

Saturday, May 4, 2013

All religions have their own opinion and teachings of what is going to happen at the end of our world. Judaism does not dwell on it. The emphasis is in living a rightous life and doing good deeds or mitzvot. Judaism started with Abraham as the first monotheist and then with Moses (1391-1271 BCE) codifying Judaism. Christianity was created from the teachings of Jesus and members of their church before and after the death of Jesus in 29 CE. Islam came along from the teaching of Mohammad (570-632 CE).

The idea of the end of days was introduced in the Torah under Numbers 24:14 where Balaam, a heathen prophet was asked to curse the Israelites when they came to Balak's (king of Moab) country during their wanderings in the wilderness. Balaam was talking to Balak and said, "Come, I shall advise you what this people will do to your people in the End of Days. Balaam was divinely inspired. Instead of cursing the Israelites, he uttered blessings in place of curses. It turned out that Balaam was a faithful servant of G-d. The rabbis classed him among the 7 prophets who spoke to heathen nations. That section started off the thoughts about what will happen to our descendants at the end of days.

All three religions say the end of days are at hand, soon to come.

I. Judaism believes in the coming of the Moshiach (messiah). It means a savior or a hoped for deliverer, the anointed one. It will be somebody who is of nobility and greatness. It will be a mortal man. He will be of the Davidic dynasty, will rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem and gather Jews from all over the world and bring them back to the Land of Israel. The ingathering has been already been happening and is an ongoing thing.

Furthermore, all the nations will recognize Moshiach to be the world leader and will accept his dominion. There is then to be world peace in the Messianic era. There will be no more wars or famine and in general people will live with a high standard of living.

All will worship one G-d and will live a more spiritual and moral way of life. Israel will be involved with learning Torah and understanding its secrets. This has been ongoing. This might even refer to the Bible Code found underlying in the Torah by mathematician and Bible Scholar Eliahu Rips who put his program of the Torah in Hebrew into the computer and discovered information in codes. The coming of the Moshiach completes G-d's purpose in creation. This is to reveal the inherent spirituality in the material world.

Judaism is counting on the Moshiach leading the way for man's ability to change and that people will strive for goodness. He will be recognized as a man of G-d with greater leadership qualities than Moses had. Judaism rejects the belief in Armageddon. The world will not self-destruct by nuclear war or by terrorism. So we await this leader of such a magnitude that the world hasn't yet experienced. His unique example and leadership will inspire mankind to change direction.

To recognize him, the prerequisite is that he is skilled in the written and oral Torah traditions. There is a predestined time when Moshiach will come, depending on how deserving we Jews are. Torah authorities say we are in the "epoch of the Moshiach" now. Many people today can trace their lineage back to King David. If this person actually does build the Temple and gathers in the exiles, then he is the Moshiach, so who are the exiles not yet gathered in? We do have 6 million Jews in the USA and about 2 million more still scattered among the nations. Could this exceptional Torah scholar cause this type of movement? To be the Moshiach he must. Besides them, there is a section in the Torah that tells of the need to find the Lost 10 Tribes of Israel. To the main body of Judah, they were "lost" because of the Assyrians attacking and later the Babylonian attack which resulted in stealing away the population for slavery, etc. This is already taking place. Several groups have returned to Israel.

Jealousy, conflicts, hatred, greed and political strife that is destructive will disappear. That certainly is creating a Utopia and would be welcomed. Looking at the world's behavior in history, one can see that for Jews, the Moshiach hasn't arrived yet and we are still waiting.

Our book, the Zohar, said that the 7 days of the week were based on the 7 days of creation and this corresponds to the 7 millennia of creation. The 7th day of the week, Shabbat-a day of rest, corresponds to the 7th millennium, the age of universal rest, or the Messianic Era. The 7th millennium begins with the year 6000 from creation (Jewish Calendar) and is the latest time the Moshiach can come which would be 2239 CE. According to this figure, that last day for the Moschiah to arrive is in 226 more years.

The book of Isaiah also describes a time of judgment 2:4. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people with the Messianic Age following of global peace and knowledge of our creator. "They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation will not lift sword against nation and they will no longer study warfare." The Mishna states that the world will be judged at 4 different periods during the year; Rosh ha shanah or the New Year has become the day of Judgment for all mankind, the decrees being finally sealed on the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur, which comes 10 days later.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------II. For Christians, who came along about 1,300 years after Judaism, they are also awaiting their 2nd coming of the Messiah. Matthew writes of a great tribulation. However, how this will happen differs with each group. Most Catholics, liberal Protestants and orthodox Christians in the USA do not emphasize the end of the world. Rarely does a minister preach about it. Evangelical Protestants stress it and believe that the events that are to happen first are happening right now. They find this in Matthew 24, Paul's epistles, and the Book of Revelation.

Before the Messiah comes, certain things will take place; wars, rumors of war, famine, earthquakes, persecution, false prophets, lawlessness, and a hardening of hearts. Yes, it is the present day situation, but it can also be said of many times in the past, as well. However, this present day includes the A Bomb and atomic warfare. That's a little different from bows and arrows.

Jesus' Gospel will spread all over the world before the end of days. Some believe the Antichrist will usher in the end of times. The establishment of Israel, which is the reclaiming of the Jewish homeland is seen by many as having been necessary. Ezekial in 36:24 said, "I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land," and "on G-d's original gift of the land to Abraham and his descendants in Genesis 17.

Luke said, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and in many places famines and pestilences. There will be terrors and great signs from heaven. But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake. ...You will be hated by all for my name's sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives. But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart.....They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. It sounds to me like this already took place in 70 CE.

Some believe in the Rapture when born-again Christians will be "caught up" into the air and meet Christ in the clouds, like it is described in 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18. This will happen unexpectedly and people will all of a sudden rise from their cars or kitchen tables into the sky. After the Rapture, Christ will begin a 1,000 year reign.

Christians are not happy to see chaos and violence in the Middle East and consider them inevitable but regrettable signs of the end of the world. John Hagee, who wrote "In Defense of Israel," is the Pastor who leads the way in aiding Israel.

Christians believe that Judgment Day will purportedly take place after the Resurrection of the Dead and the Second Coming of Christ.
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III. Islam, which came along about 2,000 years after Judaism and 600 years after Christianity, believes in the Day of Judgment at the end of days and says there are 3 eras before this is to happen. Muhammad will die, all his companions will die and this will end 1,000 years later.

Significant is the King of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman bin Faisal bin Turki bin Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Saud, who is 88 years old. He became king in 2005 when his half brother, King Fahd, died. He is said to be the last king. The kingship goes from brother to brother, not father to son. Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz, as second deputy prime minister, a post long viewed as "crown prince is in waiting." As king, Abdullah is a dictator, so his country follows the strict Wahhabist interpretation of Sharia law.
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The first thing they will look for is the appearance of the 12th Imam or Mahdi. The credentials to be the Mahdi are that the father's name has to be similar to the Prophet Muhammad's name. Mahdi, or the guided one' is a man who is going to follow the true Islam. He is to be the descendant from Ali and Fatima (daughter of the prophet Muhammad) making him the descendant also of al-Hasan or al-Husain. He will be very just and his capital will be Damascus. The angel Israfil will sound the horn signalling the end of days. The natural order of the sun, mountains and sea will become reversed.

Muslims believe that Allah told them that Jews will master the world two times and Mahdi will appear between those 2 periods and will rule through the last one. Mahdi is not a prophet but the final Rightly guided Caliph. He will lead the Muslims to a great victory against the Christian Romans (white Europeans and Americans). This war will be called al-Malhamah al-Kubrah or Armageddon. It will end up with the Muslims as victors after 6 years of fighting. They will then take over their capital of Rome (or any city). In the 7th year, the Antichrist will appear and an even greater war will start between the Jews and Muslims for 40 long "days." (not the usual time span). This will end when Jesus will come and Muslims will kill all the Jews and everyone will convert to Islam. Then peace will pervade the whole world.

The Mahdi will ride a white horse. The false messiah will appear as a great beast-like creature with one good eye and one blind eye and the mark of Kafir. He will claim to hold keys to heaven and hell and lead many astray, but believers (Muslims) will not be deceived. Jesus (Isa) shall return from the 7th sky to help the Mahdi against Dajjal (antichrist). There will be 2 tribes, Ya'jooj and Ma'jooj, formerly imprisoned because they are vicious beings, will ravage the earth, drink all its water and destroy all life. Allah (G-d) will then send worms and insects to destroy them. Medina, Saudi Arabia, will be deserted as good Muslims will follow the Mahdi and the sinners will follow Dajjal. A thin, short legged ruler of Ethiopia will attack Mecca and destroy the Kaaba. The Beast or Dabbat al-ard will populate the entire planet. A pleasant breeze will blow from Yemen and will cause all believers to die peacefully. (This sounds like Sarin gas to me). The sun will rise from the west. The Quran or Koran will be taken to heaven and many will not recall its verses, even the Huffaz (like people with a PhD in Islam studies). A trumpet will sound and all humanity left will die. 40 years will go by and then smoke will envelope the world for 40 days. A 2nd trumpet will sound. The dead will return to life. A fire will start from Hadramawt in Hemen that shall gather all people of the world into Mahshar for "The Last Judgment."

The dead will then stand in a grand assembly and wait for the scroll telling of their good deeds, sinful acts and judgement. Muhammad will be resurrected first. Punishments include severe pain, embarrassment and shame.

Among the 3 major outlooks are hundreds of slightly different views from the above. This is a general overview of what our friends or enemies might believe. Each has a self-preservationist belief in that their group is made up of the winners and the others are to be the losers, so to speak. Each thinks that the end game is that everyone will comply to their religion. This is going to wind up being that G-d must choose who the winner, is, much like all the TV shows coming out of the USA in choosing the best singer, dancer, clothing designer, etc. What is everyone doing to find favor in G-d's eyes, then?

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Last night on the Jimmy Fallon show, which comes on about midnight, the first and main person introduced was Sir Ben Kingsley, who played Gandhi. He proudly told his audience that his mother was a Russian Jewish lady and that he also had Muslim and Christian roots as well, so he was indeed a man of peace. A man of 3 major religions playing the man of peace, the Hindu, Gandhi, is really an amazing guy.

When this man appeared on Fallon's stage, he owned the program. He had command of the whole evening. He sent out vibes that reached even me! One could feel the command he had in his appearance and stance. And funny! He was hilarious and such a good sport. He had also been on Jay Leno's show the night before as well. He's making the rounds because of a new movie he's in and he's getting publicity for it. He spoke with an Indian accent and my goodness, nobody does it better than he does, being he has Indian heritage. He was truly at his best both nights.

I was so proud of him to say that on TV. It was almost like the fellow who just came out about being gay and admitting it to people. I see that on Wikipedia, Ben wasn't completely sure about his mother's heritage. Anna Lyna Mary Goodman, actress and model, was born British but out of wedlock and was "loath to speak of her background." Her father said the family thought they had been Russian or German Jews while Kingsly's maternal grandmother was English and worked in the garment district of East London. This has been an area and work where Jewish women coming over from Europe did find employment. Kingsley said, "I'm not Jewish...and though there might be some Russian-Jewish heritage way back on my mother's side, the thread is so fine there's no real evidence."

He must have done some research by the time of last night's show, for now he stated it proudly. In Judaism, if the mother is Jewish, the child born to her is Jewish. Like he said, "if they weren't practicing Jews, he would know nothing about it." I suggest he could do some dna testing, if he's curious enough. We have tests that can tell you a lot about yourself and see what his mother's mt DNA line is and if it matches up with anyone who is Jewish. Then he'll find out if his mother had German or Russian roots.

What a combination he is and look how wonderful he has turned out to be; a little of the 3 major religions. Ben was born Krishna Pandit Bhanji in Snainton, North Riding of Yorkshire, near Scarborough, England on December 31, 1943, which is quite a serious time in history, right in the middle of WWII when England was being shelled by the Germans. He was a New Year's Eve baby bringing in the New Year.

His paternal grandfather was a spice trader who had moved from India to Zanzibar where his son and Ben's father lived until moving to Britain at the age of 14. Ben's father, Rahimtulla Harji Bhanji, was born in Kenya and was of the Gujarati Indian Ismaili Muslim Khoja descent. He was a physician.

Kingsley grew up in Pendlebury, near Manchester, England. He studied at the University of Salford and at Pendleton college, which later became home to the Ben Kingsley Theater. He turned down the opportunity to become a pop star to join the Royal Shakespeare Company after an audition. His name change as an actor was so that his foreign name wouldn't be used to hamper his career. His paternal grandfather's nickname was "King Clove," thus out of this grew Kingsley.

Finally, after years of acting, he found fame when he played the part of Mohandas Gandhi in the Academy Award-winning film, Gandhi in 1982, his best-known role to date. He was chosen as Best Actor. He is famous as well in England. He was named a commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2000. He was made a Knight bachelor in 2002, announced on December 31, 2001 which was his 58th birthday. The award came from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. People call him "Sir Ben." He's won a Grammy Award in 1984 in which he had the best spoken word or non-musical recording for The Words of Gandhi. He was given the award of the Indian Civilian Honour Padma Shri in 1984. Then on May 2010, Kingsley was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. This year in April he received the Fellowship Award at the Asian Awards in London.

He has played such roles as an Arab potentate in Harem, 1985; the Jewish Meyer Lansky gangster in Bugsy 1992; a Jewish bookkeeper in Schindler's List 1993, a suspected Nazi war criminal in Death and the Maiden 1994, a proud Arab-American patriarch in The House of Sand and Fog which won him a 3rd Oscar nomination. He was the star in the 1981 Chariots of Fire, about the 1924 Olympics with the British Track team and Ben was a Jewish member competing against a Christian member.

Ben is proud of his mother's heritage. I hope he learns more history about this side of his family. What is known about Jews in India is very sketchy, I've read. I have to smile. His mother is the Jewish girl who married the doctor, every Jewish mother's dream for her daughter. I acted in an old time Yiddish play, "She Must Marry a Doctor" by Sholom Alecheim in Safed, Israel, myself. Coming out of either Germany or Russia at that time would have been a traumatic experience for any young Jewish girl.

About Me

I'm the American Nadene Goldfoot. Another lives in England. I'm the one who went to Israel and lived there from 1980 to the end of 1985. I'm an amateur genealogist for our family who also has expanded interests into dna. I now spend my time writing in my 3 blogs teaching about Israel and defending her position.

On my tree I have found Rabbi Samson Wertheimer, RASHI, and King David through DNA testing. Another branch holds the kings and queens of England by genealogy. When current events become deplorable, I turn to this hobby for a lift. It's all whetted my appetite for ancient history of Israel.